U.S. Navy Successfully Uses Laser to Shoot Down Drones

[going_home]

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501465_162-20011041-501465.html

Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTpP412fM8U&feature=player_embedded

[beam]

pew pew pew-pew

[teufelhunden]

can they attach it to sharks?

[cockerpunk]

moon base?

[zondo]

pew pew pew-pew

[Army]

Retrofit the Battleships using giant 16" wide beam versions.

[Fred]

After touring the USS New Jersey last year...

that'd be a shame!

Its got plenty of room for the pew pew, but don't get rid of the 16s!!!

[Army]

[Fred]

... that looks awfully familiar from my childhood...

[going_home]

[questionful]

great, humans have invented yet another excellent way to destroy things.

it sure would be a fun toy, but i have a feeling it wasn't invented for that purpose.

[Newt]

Looks like it's still an oddity for the techs to poke around with. It took over eighteen seconds to cause catastrophic damage to a drone moving relatively slowly in a straight line. That's not going to work on a missile a quarter the size going ten times that speed or an aircraft trying not to be hit. The next steps for it to be a toy that could replace or seriously augment existing anti-missile/air systems are going to have to make it accurate enough to target vital points intelligently and make it powerful enough to destroy them in a combat relevant time frame.

[Spider-TW]

Probably an intermediate funding show. "For more powerful laser-fu, deposit funds now."

[Ratt]

Probably an intermediate funding show. "For more powerful laser-fu, deposit funds now."

-Sounds about right.

[dboggs79]

If that's impressive, what kinda toys do you think they have that they won't show you. This isn't the first time they've done this. Ronald Regan called it "Star Wars"!